02/10/10 Stockholm, Sweden – Arthur Laffer, former head of the Office of Management and Budget, has decided that President Obama’s 2011 budget “is the perfect plan for catastrophe.” Laffer has a variety of policy recommendations he presents in an interview released today, and some of his more interesting thoughts include the three we’ve transcribed below:
On unfunded liabilities: [including civil service and military retirement and medical benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation] What you’ve got to do is go through all of these programs very, very carefully and make sure you eliminate those things that are pushing these programs into huge unfunded liabilities. America cannot afford any of these programs. The estimates on the unfunded liabilities are somewhere in the $100+ trillion range and when you realize our GDP is only $14 trillion, and when you realize total federal tax receipts are only $2.2 trillion, when you have unfunded liabilities of over $100 trillion you realize you’ve got a real disaster on hand.
On the stimulus and bailouts: OK, what should we do with the unspent stimulus and bailout funds? Return it back. Basically what you should do is just reduce the deficit, make sure you don’t spend it. Those programs have not only not done any good, they have actually hurt the economy and hurt it a lot.
On monetary policy: Printing money the way the Fed has done, we’ve have the largest increase in the monetary base in the history of the United States from colonial times to the present, times ten! And, that stimulates asset values, that stimulates stock prices, bond prices, very low interest rates, gold prices, spot commodity prices, oil prices… it does all that. But those effects don’t last forever. In fact, they’re really pretty short lived.
Watch the Newsmax TV video interview below.
Rocky Vega
Rocky Vega is publisher of Agora Financial International, where he advances the growth of Agora Financial publishing enterprises outside of the US. Previously, he was publisher of The Daily Reckoning, and founding publisher of both UrbanTurf and RFID Update -- which he ran from Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico -- as well as associate publisher of FierceFinance. Rocky has an honors MS from the Stockholm School of Economics and an honors BA from Harvard University, where he served on the board of directors for Let’s Go Publications, Harvard Student Agencies, and The Harvard Advocate.
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The monetarist crank Arthur Laffer is one of the men chiefly responsible for getting us into our current mess. Why is he being cited here of all places?
I agree with the first commenter…Arther Laffer is a “laffing” joke…
And if that miscreant had the courage of his convictions he would come right out and give specific cuts to make instead of hiding behind a broad general statement.
Yes, what is he doing being quoted on this sacred site??????
Wait a second is this not the same Art Laffer of the Laffer Curve fame? The same one who agreed with Cheney on “deficits don’t matter” The one who got totally punked by Austrian Peter Schiff who made him a bet about a recession AND housing crisis at the same debate? Is this not the same guy who told Bill Maher that he wanted to increase revenues for the govt not reduce public sector debt?
Well now that we got that cleared up lets listen to him now.
Art doesn’t want you buying gold and silver and “other silly things.”
Didn’t know that releasing lunatics from Federal funny farms was part of the Obama Administration plan to cut government spending.
22/12/2010.
Para el entendido en esta materia
Con todo mis respeto y admiración, pienso que sus ofrecimientos de refugios son interesantes tal vez con algunos cambios, se conviertan en maquinas practicas y efectivas, bueno, existe una remota pero no falsa posibilidad que se pudieran producir el teórico desplazamiento de placas tectónicas, i no sería mal ejercicio preparar o tener un plan.
Esto es solo una posibilidad
Para cuando las cortezas geológicas se deslicen a causa del cambio geológico de los polos.
Esos refugios convencionales que son muy buenos, pero de nada servirán serán triturados, y sepultados por mega olas producidas por movimientos de terrenos provocado por los deslizamiento de placas tectónicas inducidos por las nubes de plasma solar, en cambio la Bioarka si es una alternativa válida (BIOARKAAIM_2012).en la red.
Si pueden entender bien si no, también está bien lo impórtate es hacer algo no lo creen.,
Esto léalo usted piense bien se tienta en desbullar esto no alarme a nadie innecesariamente esto es para estar preparado no para morirse de miedo, tenga madurez y ayude generando una solución como la estoy dando yo. Por ejemplo.
(Esta maquina es diseñada y protegida en algunos de sus dispositivos actualmente, para una puntual situación que podría acontecer en un muy cercano futuro.), son necesarias mas mentes brillantes y caritativas. Consideren este comentario.
Es resistente a radiación uv, calor 200 gr sobre cero, al congelamiento -120gr y radiación electromagnética, es traslucida, flota, soporta impactos directos de 70 TN y mantiene su navegación. Es un habitáculo biosferico sustentador y protector
Para 24 humanos por habitáculo. Kolob454545@yahoo.es
Que cada día de su vida en todo el sentido sea mejor y mejor
Se despide atte.
Rodrigo Urbia M.
Chile Sud America